How Many District in Punjab

For the civil administration purpose, the state of Punjab is divided into 23 districts. When the today's state of Punjab was created in 1966, there were 11 districts and only 2 divisions in the state. Since then, the total districts in Punjab in 2025 have more than doubled and now there are 23 districts in the state.
The latest addition to the list of districts is Malerkotla, which was carved out of Sangrur district in June 2021. Captain Amarinder Singh of Congress was the Chief Minister of Punjab at that time.

Do you know your district falls under which Division? To know the answer and to know about smallest district, largest district and other important information about the districts of Punjab, continue reading this page.
The districts are further divided into tehsils and sub-tehsils. The administrative head of a district is called as Deputy Commissioner (D.C.) or District Magistrate (D.M.) which is generally an I.A.S. officer. The upper unit of civil administration is a Division and the officer incharge of a Division is Commissioner. There are total five divisions in Punjab. The incharge of police department at district level is Senior Superintendent of Police (S.S.P), but here it is important to note that police districts in Punjab may or may not be same as the normal districts. For example, Khanna and Batala are respectively part of Ludhiana & Gurdaspur districts but these are separate police districts.
The details given on this page are divided into following sections:
How many district in Punjab
Largest district of Punjab
Smallest district of Punjab

How many district in Punjab

As of January 2025, the total number of districts in Punjab is 23 (Twenty Three). A complete list of these districts and some details of each district are given in the below table. This table shows the district wise population and literacy rate, area of each district in Punjab, the name of administrative Division under which a district falls, name of the region where district is located like Majha, Malwa or Doaba. The distance of each district headquarter from the state capital Chandigarh is also given.
Do you think that the state govt will create a new district in Punjab in 2025? There are always demands by local people and politicians to give the status of district to some cities. In the past there have been political talks and promises to convert some cities like Batala, Khanna, Jagraon etc. into districts. Lets see if the demands and promises made by the politicians during the previous elections are fulfilled before the next elections or not.
Normally there are two parameters to count a district as largest or smallest and these are - Area & Population. So many students ask the question - Which is the largest district of Punjab area wise? Which is the largest district of Punjab population wise? Which is the smallest district of Punjab? To know the answers with explanation, check the following sections.

Smallest district of Punjab

Pathankot, with a total area of 929 sq. km., is the smallest district of Punjab in terms of area. Some sources say Mohali (SAS Nagar) as the smallest district of Punjab, which is no longer correct answer. The total area of Mohali district is 1093 sq. km., which is higher than the area of Pathankot district.
The below picture shows three smallest districts of Punjab, according to area and also 3 smallest districts population wise.
If we consider the total population of a district, then Barnala is the smallest district of Punjab. The total population of Barnala district is 5.96 lakh (census 2011) and this is lower than any other district of Punjab.

Largest district of Punjab

Ludhiana is the largest district of Punjab both by area and population. The area of Ludhiana district is 3767 sq. km. and its total population according to census 2011 is almost 35 lakh.
The below picture shows top 3 largest districts of Punjab, according to area and also according to the population.
Some books or websites will tell you Amritsar or Firozpur as the largest district of Punjab, which is no longer correct. After the creation of Tarn Taran district out of Amritsar and the formation of Fazilka out of Firozpur, these are no longer the largest districts in the state.

Punjab Districts - Highlights

In this section, we are sharing some points about districts of Punjab, which are important from general knowledge point of view.

• How many districts in Punjab: As of 2022, there are total 23 districts in Punjab.
• Largest District of Punjab: Ludhiana is the largest district of Punjab, both by area and population. The area of Ludhiana district is 3767 sq. km. and its total population according to census 2011 is almost 35 lakh.
• Some sources say that Amritsar is the largest district of Punjab, but after the creation of Tarn Taran district out of Amritsar, it is no longer the largest district in the state.
• Border Districts: There are six border districts in Punjab which share the boundry with Pakistan. These districts are Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Firozpur and Fazilka.
• Hoshiarpur district has the highest literacy rate. The literacy rate in Hoshiarpur district is 84.6%.
• Pathankot is the smallest district of Punjab in terms of area. Its area is 929 sq. km.
• According to population, Barnala is the smallest district of Punjab. The population of Barnala district is 5.96 lakh (2011 census).
• There were 11 districts in Punjab after the Reorganization of Punjab in 1966. These districts were - Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Firozpur, Gurdaspur, Patiala, Kapurthala, Bathinda, Ropar, Sangrur.